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<title>The Void Paradox: Stranded by Chulane_Eater_Of_Worlds, UnidentifiedFroggy</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27722926">The Void Paradox: Stranded</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chulane_Eater_Of_Worlds/pseuds/Chulane_Eater_Of_Worlds'>Chulane_Eater_Of_Worlds</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnidentifiedFroggy/pseuds/UnidentifiedFroggy'>UnidentifiedFroggy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>fethrin [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Culture, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Angels &amp; Demons, Alternate Universe - Gods &amp; Goddesses, Angst, Demons, Demons Are Assholes, Gods, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Moral Ambiguity, Multiple Universes Colliding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:21:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,393</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27722926</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chulane_Eater_Of_Worlds/pseuds/Chulane_Eater_Of_Worlds, https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnidentifiedFroggy/pseuds/UnidentifiedFroggy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kibou Shinrei is about as ordinary as you get, so when his world is destroyed and he is sent spiralling into the endless abyss that is the Void, he's definitely in way over his head. Landing in the strange bubble world that is The Void Paradox, Kibou soon finds himself contending with a wide cast of wacky characters as his new home's continued existence is threatened by the mysterious warrior known only as That Guy.</p><p>The Void Paradox: Stranded is a six part story written by the two of us, the first of a series of planned adaptions of roleplays set in a collaborative universe known as Fethrin, created by a team consisting of us two and six other people, including our lovely editor, that has been worked on for almost five years now and is a flourishing universe that we hope to bring to all you lovely people! The Void Paradox: Stranded chapters will be released over the course of the coming month and several sequels are in the works, so stay tuned.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>fethrin [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2027800</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Void Paradox: Stranded</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Well, here we go! Thanks once again to our editor and to you for reading! Have fun!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was an overcast day when Kibou Shinrei's world collapsed in on itself, swallowed up by the universe itself, chewed up and only he was spat out like a spitball through a straw. He was a normal boy, having only turned seventeen a couple days before the incident happened, he was a member of his school's anime club with a couple close friends. He wasn't a loser but he wasn't popular, instead situated somewhere in the big clump of people that made up the nameless, faceless majority of the high school population. There was nothing special or unique about him - he didn't have a tragic past or a school bully, no crush on a childhood friend or abusive parents, no secret superpower or mysterious origin - Kibou Shinrei was about as ordinary as one could get. Which  made it all the worse when it happened, when his world was ripped from him and he was ripped from his it, as all he knew and loved was torn asunder and thrust into void. And it was all  <b><i>her</i></b> fault.</p><p>They had spoken a couple times, as by the second last year of high school one tends to know most people in their grade, but he hadn't thought much of her at all up to this point. She hung out in her little clique and read books and poetry and things like that in a classroom on Thursdays, during their lunch break. She was wholly unremarkable, but so were most of the school's students. Their fleeting shared interactions were as unremarkable as the two of them, awkward conversations in the corridors and one short group project. The only thing he could remember about the pink haired girl was that she had a tendency to be a control freak. He had never imagined she'd do something like this, or even anything at all. She was a mild mannered ordinary student, just like him. Neither of them should have been wrapped up in this.</p><p>But she was and he was and his world had been incinerated, torn apart as the very fabric of his reality and the universal source code (whatever that was) disintegrated around him, walls and ceilings consumed by the void as they broke apart into strange pixel-like chunks that bounced along the ground before shattering into shards that did not exist, people repeating the same actions again and again and again and again as they were slowly consumed by the encroaching darkness they could not comprehend was even there. The only one aware of the collapse was Kibou and what could he do? It was like he was invisible, unable to stop her as she decimated his home and shattered his life into a million tiny pieces that could never be picked back up. Soon the only proof his world had ever existed was him, and the chunk of floor he was standing on, which was rapidly disintegrating. It was imminent doom, and all he could think of was <b><i>her</i></b> laughing, smiling face.</p><p>And then he fell, and the world went dark. It stayed like that for a minute or two, time seemed irrelevant in this strange place and he couldn't tell how long it took even when he tried to count. Suddenly an eruption of colour consumed his mind, purples and greens jittering and shaking as his vision decayed and it almost looked like he was being consumed by some sort of glitch in a computer game. As the 'glitch' approached he fought and he struggled and he begged for freedom but nobody came. and soon enough he was being swallowed by the darkness. Then he saw a crack appear, a jagged line of bright light, and he went for it, desperate to survive, pushing back the glitch and the purple and the green before plunging back into the darkness, where he began to drift.</p><p>He drifted for a long time. At least, it seemed like a long time, there was really no way to tell, floating through the endless emptiness, the blackness that seemed to be slowly consuming his body, the expanse of the cosmos, although somehow he could breathe, and there weren't any stars in sight, the timeless darkness eating away at him bit by bit as he watched the crack slowly vanish and the shadows consume reality. He was beginning to give up hope, until he saw the bubble. The perfect, beautiful, amazing bubble, suspended in the void, a glimpse of hope for the student turned refugee, a safe haven, a bubble of life and light and humanity in the everflowing darkness. He was drifting towards it too, and soon he was at its doorstep, thrust straight through the thin walls that tingled slightly as he passed through them but were solid when he touched them from inside. He fell straight onto the ground, the small bits of corruption falling off him, although his jacket was tattered and decayed significantly. He was safe, and he took a second to lean against the one way barrier and breathe in true, real air as relief coursed through his body. He was safe and free and alive, and he had one thing on his mind - revenge on <b><i>her</i></b>.</p><p>It took him a second to realize he was bleeding, a piece of the wall must have hit him on its path to the abyss, and as the blood trickled down his forehead he began to laugh, his dry throat cracking and hurting but he couldn’t care less, it felt so good to make noise once again, to be alive, even through the pain, even despite the inhabitants of this strange place looking at him like he was crazy, it just felt so damn good. He laughed and he laughed, even with no humour, he laughed until his throat was so sore he couldn’t laugh anymore. It was cathartic, a rare delight in a god awful day and a life plunged from calm and content into horror and darkness, and damn did it feel good.</p><p>When he had finished laughing, still delirious from thirst and hunger, Kibou stumbled into town, taking in the strange jumble of sights and sounds, an intricate combination of ideas and concepts that were smashed together like a bad crossover fanfiction. Round stone pavers contrasted against red and orange grass that gave off a light that reminded him of flame to an uncomfortable extent. Alien birds flew above, while others nested in cybernetic trees and watching the many denizens of the strange bubble world. It was paradoxical, so many different people and things mashed into each other then placed in quite literally the middle of nowhere, a paradise within nothingness, a safe haven for the weird and wild. It was truly amazing.</p><p>He leaned against one of the robotic trunks and watched the crowds pass by, observing the people, a strangeness like he had never seen. He would have been terrified if he wasn’t deprived of food, water and sleep, running on minimal energy and incapable of functioning properly. However, in his delirious, energy less state, he simply was enthralled by the childlike wonder that came over him as he watched a world that reminded him of the fantasy books and anime of his childhood, and of his home. Home. The word already sent a pang of guilt and sadness through the hollow shell that was his skin and bones and directly into his fragile little heart, and to think it hadn’t even been a week. Maybe it had been. He didn’t know how long he had drifted in the abyss, and it scared him. Hell, years could have passed. He could have been in his twenties.</p><p>Speaking of Hell, that was the one word Kibou could think of to describe the building that had just caught his eye. It was repulsive, an evil he could not describe emanating from the castle like structure that towered above the rest of the small town, only dwarfed by the titanic mountains that lay to the west of the village, topped by a tiny coffee shop on the top that Kibou could only barely make out. Dark red bricks made up the looming structure, with flaming ramparts sure to intimidate any potential interlopers, along with seemingly infinite streams of lava that went up and down and up again along the sides of the building. It was a sight to behold, and Kibou absolutely hated it the moment he saw it. Unfortunately, the goddamn ugly, aesthetic breaking neon sign - the kind that Kibou would expect to see at a sleazy bar that hadn’t seen a renovation since the eighties - that hung from the citadel of evil promised cheap accommodation, and Kibou wasn’t sure he’d find anywhere else to stay.</p><p>So, begrudgingly, he made his way toward the ‘Chateau D’Infer’, as he supposed staying in a house of evil was better than being on the streets. The door was made of what seemed to be burnt wood, and it was hot to the touch, leaving little scorch marks on his hands as he pushed his way in. The waiting room was surprisingly quaint, with small potted plants and seemingly comfortable seats, although the atmosphere was somewhat ruined by the leather jacket wearing demon lounged out on an office chair behind the front desk. It was smoking a cigar and flipping through a magazine that Kibou was sure had unsavoury contents. Kibou awkwardly cleared his throat and the demon’s head span around abruptly, with an audible snap in its neck. It grinned at him.<br/>
“Ah, a newcomer. Lookin for a place to stay, I presume?” The demon’s voice was low and gravelly, making Kibou think of nails scratching against walls and the low whimpers of a torture victim who had given up hope, neither masculine nor feminine but somewhere in between. It made his skin crawl, but he sucked it up.<br/>
“Yes. How much for a single room?” He spoke curtly and quietly, somehow managing to hold it together as the reality of his situation began to set in, hoping not to give away his repulsion to the awful beast that would almost certainly taunt him for showing any sign of weakness. He wasn’t sure if it had worked, but the demon didn’t seem to pick up on his crippling fear and continued on, taking a swig of the cheap beer sitting on the front desk as it spun around on the chair, lying it’s three clawed feet on the desk.</p><p>“That’ll be three Cylian credits a night,” it told him, a smirk crossing its many toothed features, before it continued on with a knowing look, “or you can do manual labour if you can’t even afford that.” Kibou gulped at the thought, the simple idea of doing the dirty work of the literal incarnation of evil sent shivers down his spine. He had a very strong sense of moral justice, something he hadn’t noticed until recently, and he wasn’t going to do work for some dirty demon, so he’d have to get the money some other way.<br/>
“I’ll get the money.” The demon shrugged and waved him off in response, going back to its illicit magazine and proceeding to completely ignore the starved teen. Kibou began puzzling over the problem that had presented itself to him as he walked out of the reception, brushing his fingers against the door and wincing as he felt the burning sensation running through them on the way out. He needed money and he needed it quickly, especially if he was to get food. Unfortunately for him, he was completely unfamiliar with his surroundings and had no idea where, or even how, he could get the cash.</p><p>As he stood in the marketplace, an idea occurred to him - he could sell some of his possessions, it wasn’t like he’d need his iPhone when all his friends were dead and his cell plan had probably been deactivated when the cellular company and the cell towers disintegrated into tiny pixelated blobs that proceeded to fall straight into the void. He pulled out his phone, and gave it a once over - the screen protector was cracked, but it could be removed. It seemed to work alright, although when he tapped it a little bit of black stuff fell out and dripped onto the floor, seemingly growing a sentience and bounding away. Weird, just like this place, which he still wasn’t entirely sure was real and not some crazy delusion. He was on the brink of passing out from exhaustion, so this might just be a fever dream as  he died in the endless void of space. Wouldn’t put it past this fucked up week.</p><p>As fun as it would be to fantasize about how this was all some sort of bad dream and it would all be over soon, a body needs maintenance and Kibou was so hungry it was incredibly painful, not to mention his sleep deprivation, so he needed to get a move on. Scanning his surroundings he eventually spotted a sign signifying “The Void Paradox Pawnshop”. Interesting name, although he wondered what this Void Paradox was. Making his way over to the shady store, he took in the sights and sounds of the marketplace. Vendors of all shapes, sizes and species were shouting about slogans and advertising their wares, the establishments ranging from tents to stalls to regular buildings and even what appeared to be a levitating boat filled with very angry goblins. The whole thing was phenomenal and horrific at the same time. The whole marketplace was like a hub for nature’s worst and best at the same time. It made Kibou giddy with a strange sense of delusional excitement, yet he was also terrified of what it could mean for him at the same time. Needless to say it was a strange emotion.</p><p>He pushed open the door of the pawn shop and entered a cramped space, with all sorts of colourful wares lining the sides of the shop, assorted cloaks and garbs hanging from ceiling mounted coat hangers while cages containing exotic animals were stacked precariously to one side, sounds ranging from squawks to screeches to screams replacing the bustle of the marketplace. On one wall hung a titanic weapon rack, with swords, maces, battleaxes and even more absurd weapons hanging from the stone tablet, which was positioned next to a bookshelf lined with both ancient tomes that surely contained ancient magics and strange spells, as well as items labeled as “Prime Artifacts”, which seemed to quite literally be things that had come from Earth and were being sold for comedically high prices. It was incredibly strange and Kibou once again couldn’t decide if he loved it or hated it. Instead of some kooky creature like he had expected, the counter seemed to be entirely automatic, with two scales labeled “Purchase” and “Sell”. He tentatively peeled off the shattered screen protector and placed his phone on the Sell scale, and a loud beep occurred, with an arm coming from seemingly nowhere and grabbing the phone, before a small robot that looked like a modified Roomba, with the arm mounted on top, sped out from behind the counter and placed it on the Prime Artifacts shelf, with a price of 500 Cylian credits written on. The scale machine then proceeded to spit out a total of 100 Cylian credits, hopefully enough of these ‘Cylian credits’ to survive for a while, although the price difference bothered him a lot.</p><p>Stepping out of the shop and back into the bustling marketplace, a food truck caught Kibou’s eye and he walked over, handing over six credits in return for a small meal in a styrofoam container, which he took a look at only after purchasing it, to see what looked like blue meat slathered in brown sauce. He dipped his finger in, it was an interesting flavour, a mix of sweet and bitter that combined to be quite delicious. He closed up the container before heading back up to the room, shoving past vendors and speeding up rapidly, desperate to get some food in his stomach and finally go to sleep. He pushed his way through the burning doors and pretty much shoved the credits in the demon’s face, whose only response was rolling their eight eyes in a way that made Kibou fume.<br/>
“Back so soon,” it said in its infuriating drawl, simply enraging Kibou further. “I spose you want a room, kiddo. Well, here’s your damn key. Either return it or pay for another night tomorrow, or you’ll have more than your survival to worry about.” The grin on the demon’s face made Kibou sure that wasn’t a joke.<br/>
He gulped and walked to the elevator, typing in the room number, 138, and was profoundly surprised to feel the lift plummet downwards, nearly toppling to the floor before he grabbed onto the railing, only letting go when he realised it was sucking his hand toward it. Was everything trying to hurt him in this shitty excuse for a hotel? It wasn’t a pleasant image, and he hoped his bed was less aggressive. He snarled at the evil railing and got out, following a small passageway to a room marked 138, although there was no visible door. He pulled out the key and to his shock it floated out of his hand and extended into some sort of keyhole, although it looked suspiciously like a mouth. He gulped, hoped for the best, and stepped inside as the maw widened to his height. His first thought was that the room was surprisingly pleasant, remarking on the bowl of fruit on the coffee table in front of the television, the small table and kitchen, the large bed and the eldritch carvings in the walls, as the door closed and the key floated into his hand. It was time for Kibou to call it a night, but first he needed to eat something.</p><p>Sitting down on the chair that didn’t burn his bottom (thank god), Kibou placed down the styrofoam container and opened it up, digging into the sauce covered chunks of alien flesh with the included wooden fork. They were very tasty, grilled in such a way to be delectable, along with the sweet-bitter sauce that added an extra layer of flavour to the meal. As much as he’d like to savour the extraterrestrial meal and take in every little space spice, he was famished and as such he consumed each chunk in a single bite, chewing it at what was surely record speed. As he ate, he noticed a small brochure on the table - “Ten Items Exhibition at the Ethereal Vault, on now! Learn about the wish granting items that have the power to change the world!”. It was interesting to say the least, and the wish granting bit appealed to him. After all, once shelter, food and income were taken care of, Kibou had one priority - vengeance. She needed to pay, and he needed his world back. It was what had to happen, and this might be an avenue to do it.</p><p>But those were thoughts for another day, dreams of revenge and righteous justice and avenging his world and friends and family and life were for another day. Kibou needed to sleep. Finishing off the meal, he lay down on the bed, closing his eyes and hoping he would be able to fall asleep quickly. He wasn’t, and instead lay awake, his eyes tracing the carvings on the walls and a little subconscious bit of his brain saying that he wouldn’t dream if he didn’t sleep. After about half an hour, he sighed. He needed to rest, his brain was functioning badly enough as is. So he had to take the option he didn’t want to take. He opened the little white container, the last remnant of his world, and poured out two pills, pouring a glass of water from the tap labelled water (not the treacle, acid or vatrium ones), before swallowing them both. He was out within minutes, slumped over on his pillow, maybe not comfortable but asleep nonetheless.</p><p>Kibou didn’t dream that night, but he fell asleep thinking of these ten items, and of how he could claim his justice, avenge his world, and destroy the evil that had wronged him. It put a smile on his face.</p>
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